Necrotizing Fasciitis After Laparoscopic Colonic Surgery

Abstract

A 67-year-old woman, with a past medical history of diabetes mellitus and hypertension, underwent an elective laparoscopic anterior resection for sigmoid colon adenocarcinoma. She was readmitted on the tenth postoperative day with complaints of abdominal pain and a foul smelling discharge from her abdominal wound. She was later diagnosed with necrotizing fasciitis (NF) over the extraction wound. To our knowledge there has only been one other case of NF after laparoscopic colonic surgery reported in the literature. We reviewed the literature on NF after laparoscopic surgery, and discussed the clinical diagnosis; diagnostic adjuncts such as magnetic resonance imaging, bedside exploration under local anesthesia, frozen section of deep incisional biopsies, and laboratory tests; and management principles of NF. Although there is a low incidence of wound infections associated with laparoscopic colonic surgery, necrotizing infections although rare, are a very real possibility.